Carnival Of Souls movie review

Carnival of Souls released in 1962 is an independent horror movie that employs art-house and expressionist elements. Carnival of souls is a about a woman who while her friend is drag racing with a group of cocky boys ends up crashing their car off of a bridge guard rail, plummeting the car full of women into the river below. The cops try to find the car but are unable, and while they are searching, Mary Henry, one of the women in the car, comes staggering out of the river. The story then follows Mary, a skilled organ player, as she leaves the small town where the accident took place (filmed in Lawrence Kansas) to take a position in Utah as a church organist. Mary is a strange woman, very aloof and distant from everyone around her. She also begins to be haunted by the specter of a strange man, as she seems to be descending into madness. As the movie progresses we are given few clues into what is happening with Mary, other than the fact that she seems to be attracted to a strange pavilion at the site of an abandoned amusement park on the shore of a lake. The movie ends with a great twist, that I found really interesting the first time I saw it. I only wish I could experience the joy of watching this movie and seeing that twist for the first time. Let me just say right now, this is one of my top five favourite movies of all time, I absolutely love everything about this amazing classic independent horror movie. This movie works really well, it is artsy, it employs shadows, the strategic use of silence, and the eerie organ music that is the sole soundtrack of the movie plays an important part of the movie. This movie has elements that would fit in with the German expressionist movement, and in many ways pays homage to earlier horror movies. I first heard about this movie while watching a Halloween horror movie marathon on the Sci-Fi Channel with my mom as a kid. The marathon was hosted by Rob Zombie, as he introduced the movie, he stated that Carnival of Souls had a huge impact on him, and he came close to naming his band after the movie, though later settling on naming it White Zombie after the Bela Lugosi classic. As I watched that movie for the first time it deeply impacted me, and instantly became on of my all-time favourite movies. I love movies that use an artistic use of shadows, and music to create the elements of horror. This movie is beautiful to look at, and Candace Hilligoss' performance as Mary was absolutely perfect. This movie has been very influential on filmmakers who have seen it like George Romero, and David Lynch, in fact I can see similarities between Mary Hentry from Carnival of Souls and Barbara from Night of the Living Dead. The nice thing is if you want to see this movie, and are not a film collector like myself, it is public domain and you can watch it on Youtube, or find it in horror movie compilation dvds that are easily found, matter of fact I think I have about 4 copies of this movie between this stand alone dvd and various horror compilations. The interesting thing about this movie, is that the director Herk Harvey failed to register a copyright for it before its release, which immediately put it into public domain. Another thing that makes this movie so great is that it employs a lot of guerrilla filming techniques, and much of the film was shot without permits, and with hand held cameras, and mobile cameras that were used by news crews, rather than the normal more expensive cameras and equipment that would typically be used in filming movies. There is some interesting information about the making of this film available online, and from reading it, it is easy to see why this movie has been so influential to filmmakers and has become a cult classic. Sadly when this movie was released, it wasn't well received, because over the years it has become a critically acclaimed movie, and often sited for its importance to film history. This is definitely a must see for all fans of film, not just horror movies, but anyone who is interested in film history. Would I recommend this movie? Yes, very much so, I think every horror movie fan NEEDS to see this amazing movie, but it isn't a movie that only appeals to fans of horror, but it would also appeal to fans of art, and the use of art in film. In my opinion this is definitely one of the most important movies in film history, and a must see for anyone who loves art and film.